The Politics of Roommates
by The Medic
Summary: [AU] Roxas was the aggressive type, and not in a good way. When Axel posted his ad for a roommate, he wasn’t expecting someone who would push him down the stairs on a near daily basis. It was weird how they seemed to balance each other out. [AkuRoku]
1. A Hate Hate Relationship

**The Politics of Roommates**

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**Chapter One : A Hate-Hate Relationship**

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The abuse started on the first day. Which was really fucked up when Axel thought about it, because _he_ was the one renting out the room to Roxas, yet he was also the one catching a fist in the face when he accidentally walked in on the blond using the bathroom five minutes into living together. 

For a moment, Axel could only stare, one hand on his zipper where he'd been fiddling with it as he entered the room. He could tell he was going to have a painful, knuckle-shaped bruise across his cheekbone and underneath his eye, judging by the numb throb that had set in. His head slowly turned back to look at Roxas in open-mouthed shock at the hard knot that had formed on his cheek, and he shuffled forward a step to close the door and push the lock.

"See," he said, pointing at it. "We have locks. They work well for preventing these kinds of situations."

Roxas gave the redhead a disinterested look. "You just locked us in a bathroom together."

"Yes. Yes, I did." His eyes traveled downward. "And you're still holding your dick."

"And you're still _looking_." A fierce blush swept over the blond's face as he hurriedly tucked himself in.

Axel arched his eyebrows and looked pointedly at Roxas's now-zipped pants. "Well, it was kind of hard _not _to."

It was then that Roxas realized the alarming reality of having a roommate. At any point in time, he could be interrupted, awoken, or walked in on, and so from that moment on he vowed to punish any transgression on Axel's part with significant amounts of pain. For his own personal preservation, of course. It would be an attempt to maintain some sort of balance, seeing as Axel had already greatly invaded Roxas's privacy, regardless of the redhead's actual intentions.

It was all downhill from there.

Axel had inherited the condo from his dead uncle along with a handful of pocket change and a car he couldn't drive. The bills were more than his meager minimum wage job could afford, partially because said minimum wage job changed like clockwork every two weeks. Rather than moving back in with mommy and daddy, Axel had been almost grateful to scrape together spare change and get a roommate to split the steep monthly fees. Until he'd actually met said roommate.

Roxas had described himself on craigslist as a 'quiet, unobtrusive twenty-three year old non-smoker and non-drinker with very clean habits.' Axel hadn't been aware 'very clean habits' had actually meant _psychotically anal._

"Have you thought about seeing a therapist?" Axel asked as he walked inside to the incredibly amusing sight of Roxas wearing a sterile-looking white apron tied in an elaborate bow at the small of his back. The little blond was standing on his tip-toes, dusting the top of a rarely used bookshelf in the corner of the living room.

He stiffened at Axel's words. Slowly, he turned to glare at the other boy, practically bristling, and hissed, "What are you _talking_ about?"

"The apron." He squinted one eye as he leered and asked, "I mean, I know you like to clean, but is it _really_ necessary?"

"My mother gave it to me," he deadpanned, then smiled and cocked his head. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Yes." Trailing up and down Roxas's figure with his eyes, he lingered over the delicate frills lining the bottom hem. "It's ugly."

Roxas's eye twitched. "Did you just insult my mother?"

"Nope." He grinned. "I just insulted your mother's _apron_."

And that was when Roxas grabbed a clock off a middle shelf and hurled it at Axel's head. It was a thick cherry wood block with a gold-plated face in the center, hard and heavy and thrown with enough force to draw a surprising amount of blood from Axel's forehead. To add insult to injury, Axel staggered backward, swaying once before he collapsed onto the floor, hitting his head solidly on a nearby door on his way down.

Total monetary damage: $100 co-pay at the local Emergency Room.

Axel had since learned to appreciate private insurance companies and wonderfully low co-pays, although his respect for the blue-collar worker stayed the same. The redhead didn't seem to have an inkling of a clue where benefits were concerned, mainly because he'd never stayed at a job long enough to be eligible. In fact, he'd never kept a job long enough to get a second pay stub.

Roxas's moving in had coincided with the first day of Axel's newest endeavor, a cashier at Wal-Mart, and had given the blond the impression that Axel, despite all appearances, could hold a job. Much to his dismay, he was quite mistaken in his assumption, because the first time Axel mentioned work, it was to say,

"So, I think I need a new job."

Roxas looked up from the bowl of cereal he was munching on, a single corn flake stuck to the side of his face. "Why's that?"

Axel stared at the corn flake on Roxas's cheek, curious as to why his new roommate was eating breakfast food at ten o'clock at night. He attempted to wish it into oblivion with his mind and, taking the hint, the blue-eyed boy brushed it into his mouth with his thumb.

"I don't look good in blue," Axel said.

It took Roxas a second to comprehend the absurdity of the sentence before gaping in shock. "You _what?"_

"I don't look good in blue," Axel repeated before turning to search for something in one of the large oak cabinets. "It doesn't look good with my hair."

"How long have you had this job?"

"Uh, a day. Ish." Axel continued shuffling his hand around until coming upon a hidden Special K bar buried deep within the confines of the cabinet. Even with his long arms, he wasn't able to maneuver through the seemingly endless sea of cereal that Roxas had insisted on buying, just in case he had a craving. Which he apparently had. "Well, I maybe kinda started today. Does that count?"

Roxas seemed to lack an immediate verbal response for Axel's stupidity. Calmly, he pushed his bowl of cereal forward and rose to join Axel in front of the cabinets, staring at him for a long moment as the other boy's fingers finally closed around the cereal bar.

Then he slammed the cabinet door shut on Axel's face.

"Motherfucker!" Axel yelped when he pulled away, dropping the breakfast bar as both hands flew to the twin lines of hot searing pain on either side of his head. "What the _shit_ was that for?"

"Being a dumbass." The petite blond trekked back to the kitchen table and flopped on a chair to finish his cereal. "If you're so pissed off, why don't you just hit me back?"

"Because." He stooped to retrieve his snack and pointed it at Roxas, still rubbing his throbbing face with his free hand. "You look like a girl."

Roxas's shoulders hunched. "_Excuse_ me?"

Axel realized his mistake too late. "I mean," he rushed to save himself, "you're just so effeminate. And…delicate?"

That only made it worse. The shorter boy gritted his teeth, hands clenched on the table top, and slowly turned in his chair to pin the redhead with a seething blue glare. "I'm not _feminine_."

Axel looked pointedly at Roxas's thin wrists, soft face, and slender neck. He was already as good as dead, so he might as well go down with a fight; he smirked. "You keep telling yourself that."

For the second time, Roxas got out of his seat, bowl of cereal in hand, and stalked over to Axel. He tilted his head back, chin jutting out stubbornly, and practically growled as he overturned his soggy corn flakes on the dumbass's head. The bowl shattered on the floor, and it was the only time he ever left a mess for Axel to clean. While the redhead was sputtering and recovering from the shock, the blond looked up into his face and jabbed his chest with one finger while hissing, "Never. Be. Alone." And then he swept out of the room.

The fact that Roxas had a tendency for destroying things on Axel's face did not help the redhead's equally unfortunate inclination to accidentally blow up appliances. He didn't blow things up, exactly – no, sometimes he accidentally set them on fire while other times they just smoked and sizzled a lot before finally crapping out. It happened a lot, and between Roxas's violent disposition and Axel being accident prone, they were constantly in a battle to stay financially afloat.

"What the _fuck_ happened to the microwave?" Roxas growled as he carefully hung his keys on a hook next to the refrigerator. The remains of what had previously been their microwave sat smoking on the counter, the door hanging crookedly open to reveal the smoldering remnants of… something.

"I wanted an enchilada," Axel explained, giving Roxas an annoyed sort of look that said, 'Isn't it obvious?'

Roxas glanced between Axel and the ruined appliance, pursing his lips and furrowing his eyebrows before finally giving a resigned sigh. "We can't afford a new one, so you're on cooking duty." Before Axel could even cut in to disagree, he added, "_Deal with it_," and stomped out of the room.

As it turned out, Axel was a pretty good cook when he was paying enough attention to not incinerate things. It probably helped that Roxas stood over his shoulder and barked out directions the entire time.

"You turned on the wrong burner," he noted dryly as the redhead was mixing eggs, cottage cheese and ricotta cheese in a medium-sized plastic bowl.

"Eh?" Axel glanced behind him at the pot of water. "Are you sure?"

"_Yes_." He pointed to the red-hot burner next to the pot. "Are you blind or something?"

"Oops." Axel abandoned the spices he was going to add into the bowl to switch on the appropriate burner.

Roxas rolled his eyes. "You didn't turn off the one that was already _on_. God, how have you not burned this place down already?" Elbowing the redhead out of the way, he turned off the knob Axel had just twisted on and moved the pot onto the already heated burner.

"I dunno," Axel muttered as he picked up the bowl of lasagna filling and turned to face the blond. "Luck, I guess—" He abruptly trailed off as he bumped into Roxas and half of the bowl spilled down Roxas's black work shirt.

They stared at each other for a moment, both of their faces pulled into identical expressions of surprise. The blue-eyed boy opened his mouth once, twice, then three times, before finally grimacing and spitting out, "I will fucking _kill_ you."

"So much for luck," the taller boy mumbled, watching as Roxas stripped off his dripping shirt and threw it into the sink.

"Just keep stirring," he hissed, then turned on the faucet and began washing off the white egg and cheese concoction. "And don't burn anything when I go to change."

"I never burn anything on _purpose_," Axel said under his breath as he carefully did _not_ bump into Roxas and began stirring in some spices before putting the bowl back down on the counter. Then he seemed to pause, as though mulling something over, and slowly broke into a perverted grin. "You're covered in…_white_ stuff."

Pulling his shirt out from underneath the flow of water, still half-covered in the lasagna filling, Roxas wrung it a few times before snapping it in Axel's face. With a satisfied smirk at Axel's yelp of pain, he laughed and said, "So are you."

"Sadist." He wiped the smear of food off his face with a wince.

The smaller boy didn't even bother to dignify that with a response. Huffing, he finished rinsing his shirt and stalked off toward his bedroom, pretending like he couldn't feel Axel's eyes lingering on his naked back.

The rest of dinner went off without a hitch, except for a small incident involving some boiling water and Axel's hand, which was, oddly enough, _not_ Roxas's doing. The blond was even kind enough to serve dinner while the green-eyed boy sat at the table, sucking at his burned fingers.

Axel was surprised when Roxas gracefully swept into the room, balancing the plates of lasagna, rolls, and a bowl of tossed salad he'd thrown together at the last minute, all without even breaking a sweat. He set everything down on the table and ignored Axel's impressed look.

"I'm a _waiter_," he snapped by way of explanation as he settled into his chair, taking a sip of the water he'd brought out earlier to avoid saying anything else.

"Oh." Axel blinked at him and picked up a fork with his uninjured hand. "Okay."

"Yeah." Roxas suddenly felt awkward as he followed suit and poked at his lasagna. "So, thanks for dinner."

"No problem," the redhead said with a grin, suddenly looking in much higher spirits, and took a bite of his food. "Thanks for being a waiter."

Predictably, Roxas threw a roll at his head.

It was weird how they somehow seemed to balance each other out.

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**A/N**: Please review. :D Also, for anyone who thinks Roxas is too violent... Remember the computer scene, dude. With the keyblade. And the anger. He's definitely the aggressive type. 


	2. A Public Affair

**The Politics of Roommates**

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****Chapter Two : A Public Affair**

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Roxas wasn't quite sure if it was the doorbell or the sound of Axel scurrying around in the basement that had woken him up. Wearily, he sat up and dragged himself out of bed, pulling up his yellow and green striped pajama pants before trudging to the door. With a small yawn, he ventured into the living room and began heading down the stairs to the basement to follow the noise when Axel suddenly appeared before him.

The redhead gave Roxas his best innocent grin as he attempted to keep his wet, sagging pants up. Roxas blinked once, eyes falling on the sodden jeans before moving up to Axel's equally soaked white tee.

"What the _hell _did you do this time?" he demanded as he tried to push past Axel and into the basement.

"Doorbell!" Axel exclaimed as it rang again before grabbing Roxas's wrist and dragging the blond back up the stairs. Roxas snatched his arm away as Axel nearly tripped over his falling pants, and he took a deep breath in an effort to remain calm.

His number one priority, he decided, was getting rid of whoever was at the door. Then he would be free to beat the shit out of Axel for whatever he'd managed to destroy in the basement.

Roxas threw open the front door to find… well, he wasn't sure who the hell they were, actually. A little brown-haired guy with big blue eyes was hiding behind a taller boy whose silver hair mussed from sleep, staring at Roxas with an intense aqua gaze.

"Can I help you?" he snapped, gripping the doorknob with near-white knuckles.

"It's three in the morning," the taller one drawled in a none-too-amused tone. "Could you guys possibly try _not_ destroying the wall connecting our condos?"

Roxas very carefully stopped himself from exploding with an irate, '_Destroying the walls connecting our condos?_' but it was difficult.

"Sorry," he managed to say through gritted teeth. "It wasn't me. My _roommate_ here," he grabbed Axel by his fiery red hair and forced him into the doorway, giving the sheepish-looking boy a sideways glare of death, "seems to have caused some sort of disaster in the basement."

"Yo," Axel said by way of greeting with a jaunty, two-fingered wave. "Sorry. I was trying to do laundry."

"In the middle of the night," his very annoyed-looking neighbor deadpanned.

"Yep." Straightening with some difficulty due to Roxas's firm grip on his hair, he grinned and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I guess I overloaded the washing machine or something. I dunno. There's soap and water everywhere, and it was jumping when I came downstairs to check on it…"

This time, Roxas could not contain his violent outburst. "You flooded the basement?" he shrieked and punched the redhead in the shoulder. "Are you _retarded_?"

"Oww," Axel said as he rubbed the spot where Roxas had hit him. "It was an _accident_ – can't you be a little nicer about it?"

"…Axel?" asked the silver-haired boy suddenly, looking surprised, and Axel blinked at him before grinning in unexpected recognition.

"Hey, Riku!" His expression brightened. "I didn't know you were still living next door."

Riku gave him a strange look. "I've been living here for the past five years. What made you think I moved out?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "Just haven't seen you around since my uncle died." Then, face growing mischievous, Axel turned his blazing green gaze to the shorter boy at Riku's side and asked, "Who's _this_?"

"I'm Sora," the brunet spoke up before Riku could answer for him. He crossed his arms behind his head, flashing everyone a megawatt smile and laughing. "I'm glad it was just the washing machine exploding, because I totally thought you guys were fighting or having sex or something, and that would have been reaaally awkward to interrupt."

"Sora," Riku admonished, looking torn between laughter and deep mortification. "I thought I told you not to bring that up."

Sora stuck out his tongue. "It doesn't matter, since that's not what they were doing, anyway." And then he suddenly seemed to notice Roxas's lack of shirt and the way Axel's pants had fallen halfway off his hips, and his blue eyes widened in surprise. "Err, _was _it?"

"_No_!" Axel and Roxas shouted at the same time.

Laughing, Riku put his hand on Sora's shoulder and pulled him back almost imperceptively, just enough so that the door wouldn't hit him if Axel and Roxas got the bright idea to shut it in his face. "Sorry, Sora's brain filter of things not to say," here, the taller boy's grip tightened on the little brunet's shoulder, "doesn't work this late at night."

"Technically, it's early," Axel said with an easy, forgiving grin. "Sorry for waking you up."

Riku waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad your roommate wasn't murdering you."

"Er." The redhead shot a nervous glance at Roxas. "Yeah. Not yet, anyway."

Roxas was a split second from hissing something cruel and scathing when Sora beamed and chirped, "I don't think he'd do that. He looks nice to me."

A near-invisible wince. "Um, yeah. Roxas is a really… great… guy."

The blond slid his hands behind his back and discreetly began cracking his knuckles. "_Anyway_. You guys probably want to get back to bed, and I'd like to fix the washer before it floods the entire subdivision, so…" He trailed off, smiling almost painfully politely, and looked pointedly toward Riku and Sora's doorstep.

"Right. We'd better be going, then." Smoothly, Riku guided Sora down the sidewalk connecting their front doors and called back over his shoulder, "Good luck with that."

"Bye, Riku!" Axel said, bracing one hand on the door way to wave energetically. "I'll come talk to you more often now that I know you live here!"

"I've _always_ lived here," he heard Riku mutter just before the other two boys disappeared into their condo, and Roxas took the opportunity to slam the door on Axel's fingers.

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" he yelled, feeling no sympathy whatsoever as Axel yelped and pulled his hand away, shaking it rapidly as though that would ease the pain. And then he stuck his fingers in his mouth and _sucked_ on them, hair and clothes still soaking wet from the exploding washing machine, and Roxas suddenly had trouble coming up with something to say next. "You should have, um… You should have…"

"I should have _what_?" Axel glared, looking for the first time like he might seriously fight back, his green eyes burning and mouth turned down sharply in a frown, and Roxas's jaw snapped shut with a click.

After a few awkward moments of gawking, Roxas rediscovered his ability to glower and pointed one finger threateningly in the taller boy's face. "Just try to clean everything without waking me the fuck up, okay?" he growled, giving him one last scowl for good measure, and then stomped back upstairs to curl up in bed and forget the downright disturbing scene he'd just witnessed.

At least he'd finally managed to meet the neighbors.

* * *

In hindsight, Axel decided, it had not been a good idea to start a load of laundry at such an ungodly hour. Not just because he'd ended up nearly flooding the entire condo – that much was _obvious_ – but because he worked the early shift at Wal-Mart the next day, which meant he got next to no sleep, especially after spending the remainder of his night/day mopping up their laundry room.

Such was life for Axel: sucky beyond all belief.

And so he figured he at least owed a nice lunch to himself. Untying his stupid blue apron from his too-small waist, the lanky redhead tossed it into the backseat of his'83 Firebird as he got out and walked into the closest nearby restaurant.

Everything was going well up until the point where he sat in one of their ridiculously high chairs and had just finished looking over the menu and glanced up, noticing the back of a blond head attached to a rather nice-looking body and an even nicer ass next to the cash register. Axel was five seconds from turning on the charm when said blond turned around and Axel practically dove underneath his table.

So. _This_ was where Roxas worked.

Luckily, his overly-aggressive roommate hadn't seemed to notice him yet, as he was involved with a rather intense staring contest with the register. His hips were cocked to the side, one arm wrapped over his stomach, his hand resting lightly on his hip as he chewed on the tip of a pen. He tapped the pen against his lower lip once, twice, and then waited a split second before biting it between his teeth and punching the screen.

And if there had been any doubt before in Axel's mind that this was Roxas, that would have chased it away.

"Oh shit," he muttered to himself, looking around his table in fear. _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit_, his inner mantra continued, and Axel scooted toward the window, hunching down in his seat in an attempt to hide himself, as though his flaming mess of spiked red hair wouldn't give him away almost immediately.

_Maybe he's in a good mood today_, he tried to calm himself. _After all, I didn't wake him up last night, and everything was clean in the morning. Maybe he _won't_ use this as an excuse to put my head through the table…_

He was just about to scrap the fantasy of a nice, well-deserved lunch without pain or punishment and hightail it the fuck out of there when he heard a sharp intake of breath to his left, and he looked up to find his roommate staring at him from only a few feet away, not quite scowling yet, merely appearing somewhat surprised.

And then the deathglare kicked in.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Roxas snapped as he stalked over, his black apron slung low on his hips, where the blond jerkily stashed his pen and pad of paper.

"Getting lunch," Axel explained, managing to hold his ground and not shrink away in the face of the little blond whirlwind of irrational anger. "I didn't know you worked here."

"Hmph." Crossing his arms over his chest, Roxas squinted at him for a few moments and drummed his fingers on his bicep before he said, "I've got a break in about ten minutes."

Axel blinked. "So?"

Roxas rolled his eyes and leaned against the table casually. "_So_, if you wait, I can get us some free food, okay?"

"Oh!" Axel perked, caught off guard, yet ultimately pleased. "Okay, then. Thanks."

His roommate made a noncommittal noise and shrugged. He blew his bangs out of his face, purposely not looking at Axel and said, "Yeah, yeah. In the meantime, what do you want to drink?"

"Water," he responded, trying not to look too satisfied with the situation, lest Roxas change his mind and pull everything out from underneath him.

"Okay," Roxas said, and then he even offered him a faint smile as a brunette waitress walked by, although Axel suspected it was just for show. "I'll be right back."

As promised, Roxas came out a few minutes later with a glass of water and a straw, which he placed in front of Axel without a word before sweeping off again toward the kitchen. When he returned, he was carrying two plates, each with a cheeseburger and fries, and he set them down with a neutral expression as he seated himself across from the redhead. Axel didn't move, just looked back and forth between Roxas and his lunch, wondering privately to himself if Roxas had somehow been bodysnatched.

"Well?" Roxas heaved a lengthy sigh and leveled a 'stop staring or _die_' look at Axel. "_Eat_."

"Right," Axel said, jumping into action, and began shoving french fries in his mouth. He chewed as he spoke, "You didn't tell me you worked right down the street from me."

Cringing at the green-eyed boy's lack of manners, Roxas pointedly did not look away from his cheeseburger as he took a bite. He made a show of actually chewing and swallowing his food before he responded, "I thought it was kind of obvious." His gaze suddenly darkened. "And are you really so _dense_ that after almost two weeks of living with me, you never noticed the _O'Malley's_ on my apron?"

"Actually, I never even noticed the apron," Axel admitted, absently chewing on another fry. "In fact, I didn't realize you were leaving for work most of the time…" He trailed off as something bumped his foot, and he glanced underneath the table to find Roxas's shoe tapping against his own. Looking up, he raised an eyebrow at him and smirked a little.

Roxas was too wrapped up in his annoyance to notice. "You _do_ know my name, don't you? And that I live with you?"

"Yep. Rox-as," Axel deliberately dragged the name out. Then he felt another nudge against his ankle and began to grin.

"What the _hell_ is that look for?" he demanded as he took a vicious bite of his burger.

"Nothing," Axel murmured, leaning back in his chair. Roxas's eyes narrowed, and Axel nearly laughed as he peered under the table again and said, "You're playing footsie with me."

There was a breath of silence as Roxas realized that he had been tapping his foot against Axel instead of the table leg, and for a moment Axel thought maybe the smaller boy was going to smile and laugh it off, up until the point where the blond's expression morphed into a cold, clear smile, and he reared back and kicked Axel's chair over.

"Shit!" he swore violently as he hit the floor. Rubbing the back of his head, he glared up at his roommate and started to hiss something threatening when the brunette waitress that had walked past earlier came rushing over.

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly as she held out a hand to help him up. Axel took it, and she snapped her gaze to Roxas, who was still smiling quite placidly in his seat. "Roxas, I thought we _talked_ about this. No matter what a customer says, you can't abuse them!"

"I'm on break," he pointed out sweetly. "So, he's not my customer right now."

Easing Axel to his feet, she rolled her eyes and said, "That's no excuse and you _know_ it. You should apologize!"

"Olette," Roxas said, bristling. "It's none of your business."

"It's fine," Axel cut in once he'd stood and Olette had released his hand. He offered her a slight smile, rubbing his now-aching head. "I'm used to it. We just moved in together."

"Oh, really?" Her expression turned speculative as she studied Roxas with bright, inquisitive green eyes that were a few shades darker than Axel's. "Hmmm."

"We're just _roommates_," Roxas growled and ferociously bit into his food.

Olette looked disbelieving but was wise enough to remain quiet.

Cautiously, Axel climbed back onto his chair, careful to stay out of kicking distance. He eyed the blond warily for a few moments before he decided it was safe to start eating again. Taking a sip of his water, he looked at the waitress through his eyelashes and said, "Thanks, I think we're good now."

"No problem." Olette flashed a bright grin. "Just call me if blondie over here starts beating you up again."

"_Olette_," Roxas hissed, but it was too late, as she had already turned and flounced away to another table.

Axel watched her go with a smirk. "She's nice," he commented slyly, stirring his ice with his straw. "I like her."

"Just shut up," the other boy muttered, suddenly appearing rather uninterested in his lunch. He pushed his plate away and unfolded from his seat to stand. "I've wasted enough of my break on this."

"But I thought we were _bonding_," Axel mock-whined with a roguish glimmer in his eyes. "Don't you wanna stay and eat with me?"

"_No_," he said, and as if to prove a point, picked up the remainder of his food and stalked away to the kitchen.

Shrugging, Axel watched him go and busied himself with eating and looking out the window and even scoring a free dessert from Olette, who felt bad enough for him to give him extra whipped cream. The whole ordeal didn't seem too bad until Roxas and his anger management issues came storming out of nowhere and up to the table again.

"Yo, Roxas," the redhead greeted him, hoping he'd calmed down some.

Unfortunately, the blond just ignored him and dug around in his apron for a slim black booklet. "Here's your check," he spat.

Axel blinked at him. "I thought you were giving me a free lunch?"

Roxas slammed the check down on the table harder than necessary. "I changed my _mind_," he hissed, and then turned and walked away.

At first, Axel could only stare. Then, after staring thoughtfully at the check and growing more and more pissed off as time went by, he calmly pocketed the salt and pepper shakers, all the silverware at his and the surrounding tables, and anything else he could find, and then he left without paying a single cent.

Total monetary damage: $100.

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**A/N**: This took longer than we thought to put out because ConfessYourSins came up with the bright idea that everything in her room had to be checkered because of Roxas. And then she decided she wanted more than just black and white checkers, so we had to go to the store and buy dye for scarlet, royal blue and _aqua_ pillows, so that she could have Axel, Sora, and Riku pillows. And then, after all that, she didn't even have enough for herself because I made her make _me_ all the pillows.

Anyway, here it is, and we hope you enjoyed. Please review!


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